Archives for 3 October 2015

Dear MyPE
Tens of thousands of people in Nelson Mandela Bay are still forced to use the undignified bucket toilet system.
In 2014 at the last count, there were 30 202 bucket toilets in use in the Bay. This is a total travesty and is a disgraceful legacy of a corrupt, uncaring government that has failed to deliver dignified sanitation to the people.
In Walmer Township alone there are more than 3000 bucket toilets - this is more than the total number of bucket toilets in use in the entire Western Cape.
In September 2014 the DA visited Walmer Township to conduct oversight on bucket toilets. We submitted a formal request for the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to investigate this sanitation crisis, yet the Commission remains unresponsive.
The sad reality is that while the SAHRC delays, the local government in NMB has made no change in eradicating the buckets. In fact, the national Department of Water and Sanitation's "bucket eradication programme” has been a miserable failure thus far with only 57 toilets built in the Eastern Cape last year.
Since 2011, over R65 million has been budgeted for the eradication of bucket toilets in Nelson Mandela Bay, yet to our knowledge, nothing has been spent. In fact, according to Stats SA, 35% of all bucket toilets in South Africa are still located in Nelson Mandela Bay.
During a recent visit to old age homes in PE's Northern Areas, it distressed me to witness elderly and vulnerable citizens forced to carry full bucket toilets to disposal sites to avoid overflow. These are people living among, and handling their own human waste without any solution from government.
"Everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected” says our Bill of Rights, yet these bucket toilet users are systemically denied this right by the NMB government of the ANC.
To the citizens of the Bay, who live with buckets as sanitation, and carry their own waste from their homes, I say that things don't need to be this way.
There is hope for a bucketless Nelson Mandela Bay.
I am committing to working tirelessly to solve this ongoing crisis.
I will:
Personally hand over a new and urgent application at the Provincial SAHRC offices in East London for an immediate investigation into the bucket toilet crisis in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Write to the National Minister of Water and … [Read more...]

The EP Kings staged a minor protest in their Currie Cup match against the Blue Bulls on Friday evening wearing white armbands in solidarity with the coaching staff and players that have not been paid salaries for a month.
Kings captain Tim Whitehead said the match-day 22 decided on the gesture on Thursday with the non-payment of players’ salaries being a constant issue this year.
"The 22-man playing squad unanimously decided as a group to wear white armbands for this match to signify our support for our coaching staff and management and the non-playing squad back home that is still to be paid at the Kings," Whitehead said following their 48-27 defeat to the Bulls.
"It is in response to the non-payment of our management and players back home’s salaries for the last month."
Last month the players were finally compensated after the cash-strapped union was unable to pay its players in recent months.
The Kings seemed to put the sorry saga behind them and have been performing admirably until the issue came to the fore once again this week.
The Blue Bulls have one hand on a home semi-final following their 48-27 bonus-point victory over the EP Kings in Pretoria on Friday evening.
The home side turned in a characteristic second half surge to get them over the line scoring five of their seven tries in the final 40 minutes of the encounter.
The Bulls remain in second place on the log and opened a four-point lead over the third-placed Western Province with one match left in the league phase of the competition.
It was far from a polished performance as the home side seemed to revert to their old ways of trying to bully the Kings up front, but the visitors’ pack would have none of it.
Poor defence by the Bulls and a gutsy display by the Eastern Cape side saw the Kings go into the half-time break with both teams scoring a brace of tries in the first stanza.
Bulls flyhalf Tian Schoeman and Kings fullback Scott van Breda exchanged penalties in the opening minutes of the match.
The Kings claimed the first five-pointer of the night when they countered from a turnover inside their 22 where Sylvian Mahuza stepped past and pierced the defence with Tim Whitehead finishing and Van Breda converting.
The hosts bounced back immediately with flank Lappies Labuschagne scoring from the back of a driving maul before adding his second on the half-hour … [Read more...]